The Highlanders

This was sadly the last pure historical adventure in Doctor Who until Black Orchid over 15 years later. Not only is it a sad mistake to drop the pure historical stories it is also a shame that this is another example of the less successful comedic type of historical story. The insistence on using the 'historicals' to make forays into comedy in my view caused their apparent 'failure' which lead to them being dropped. This was probably deliberate as the producer at this time Innes Lloyd and script editor Gerry Davis, who also wrote this story, disliked setting stories in the past for some reason. It is a pity because the earlier serious historical stories were often among the series best.

The comedy works at times but does not work overall compared to when taking stories seriously. Humour is a great and integral part of Doctor Who but not the more extreme or broad humour seen on occasions throughout the series. This period was one where this broad humour was more favoured but fortunately there was enough positive going on that it did not ruin more than a few of the stories.

This is not a bad story and is good entertainment as the Doctor, Ben and Polly have adventures in Scotland during the Jacobite Rebellion in 1746. The most important development in the story is the arrival of Jamie McCrimmon played by Frazer Hines who was to remain the companion of the Second Doctor until Patrick Troughton's departure. This is no classic by any means though, it is pretty unexceptional. The script, general story and production values never reach the high standards of other stories but it is a reasonably acceptable effort.

My Ratings: Episode 1, 3 and 4 - 7.5/10, Episode 2 - 7/10

Overall: 7.38/10

In The Highlanders, the Second Doctor and his companions Ben and Polly find themselves caught in the midst of a war between the British red coats and the Scottish highlanders. The Doctor and his companions have to escape from the British and get back to the TARDIS while also thwarting the plot of a corrupt government barrister who plans to ship captured Scots to brutal slavery on Carribean Islands.

This serial features some great comic scenes for Troughton and the Doctor certainly shows some cleverness in this tightly plotted story. This was actually a surprisingly strong story for Polly who in two previous stories I've seen/heard her in, her role was limited to making coffee as serving as a hostage. In this case, she's the one member of the TARDIS not captured and key to their rescue.

This serial was noteworthy for a couple other reasons. After about a third of the First Doctor stories were historicals, Troughton wanted to get away from them, so this would be the last purely historical Dr. Who episode until 1982. Also, this episode introduced the character of Jamie McCrimmon (Frazier Hines) who appeared in more Doctor Who episodes than any other companion.

Overall, this is a historic serial with plenty of fun, swashbuckling action, and the introduction of a great companion in Jamie, so it's definitely worth a listen.